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Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

The Reds have a third baseman and left fielder who are going into their sixth week of looking terrible at the plate, if you include their terrible springs. They are 1-3 against lefties, a completely forseeable trend that is carrying over from last year. They just dropped three games to a bad team after playing good ball against some top tier clubs. This is a trend over the last seven years-- not having the follow through to beat the bad teams. Yet, in the recaps, no questions about changes to the team, even with some RH bats hitting well in AAA that have ML experience. In New York the manager and especially the GM, would be answering tough questions. Dusty has gotten some soft tosses and of course Krivsky is nowhere to be found. And again these are repeating trends that are older than this two week season. Is it just the nature of the Midwestern press? Have the beats become so accustomed to losing that they have become losers as journalists themselves? Is there an unwritten rule that if you ask tough questions you'll be punished by restricted access to the team or something of the like? It's just really disturbing as a fan--and it looks like complacency.

Last edited by Wheelhouse; 04-13-2008 at 11:37 PM.

"Don't trust any statistics you did not fake yourself."--Winston Churchill

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Wheelhouse

The Reds have a third baseman and left fielder who are going into their sixth week of looking terrible at the plate, if you include their terrible springs. They are 1-3 against lefties, a completely forseeable trend that is carrying over from last year. They just dropped three games to a bad team after playing good ball against some top tier clubs. This is a trend over the last seven years-- not having the follow through to beat the bad teams. Yet, in the recaps, no questions about changes to the team, even with some RH bats hitting well that have ML experience. In New York the manager and especially the GM, would be answering tough questions. Dusty has gotten some soft tosses and of course Krivsky is nowhere to be found. And again these are repeating trends that are older than this two week season. Is it just the nature of the Midwestern press? Have the beats become so accustomed to losing that they have become losers as journalists themselves? Is there an unwritten rule that if you ask tough questions you'll be punished by restricted access to the team or something of the like? It's just really disturbing as a fan--and it looks like complacency.

Come on. This isn't a question of effort or guts. Seriously--I don't know what you're asking for, really, but I know that in the end this is just a ill-proportioned and overall bad team, no different from the last eight years. No amount of hectoring from the press is going to change that.

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Come on. This isn't a question of effort or guts. Seriously--I don't know what you're asking for, really, but I know that in the end this is just a ill-proportioned and overall bad team, no different from the last eight years. No amount of hectoring from the press is going to change that.

The majority of the press doesn't feel the same way you do, and if they do they didn't write it before the season. Everything was about the much improved Reds with the young pitching.

Originally Posted by PuffyPig

Let's face it, you mis-hit the bun with the mustard squirter, no one will really care.

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Wheelhouse

Is there an unwritten rule that if you ask tough questions you'll be punished by restricted access to the team or something of the like?

If I had to guess, I'd picture the unwritten rule to be more like this: If your work endlessly questions the manager's decisions and the GM's decisions, you'll be the reporter that reads about personnel decisions in news releases, rather than the one who gets hints dropped about them before they happen.

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

The majority of the press doesn't feel the same way you do, and if they do they didn't write it before the season. Everything was about the much improved Reds with the young pitching.

The national press wants a feel good story, and, well, the young arms provided a glimpse in spring training. Boom--there's a story. But the national press will dump the Reds quicker than a bucket of batcrap if they have a losing record in April. And local press will throw up its hands. I just think counting on any press to change how things are done in a small market is pointless. It's not going to happen.

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Come on. This isn't a question of effort or guts. Seriously--I don't know what you're asking for, really, but I know that in the end this is just a ill-proportioned and overall bad team, no different from the last eight years. No amount of hectoring from the press is going to change that.

I'm not asking the press to "hector" (heckle?) them. I'm asking why basic questions are not asked, that are asked to other teams by their beats, particularly those of winning clubs.

"Don't trust any statistics you did not fake yourself."--Winston Churchill

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Probably because even the guys that write in Cincinnati know that we are talking about less than 2 weeks worth of games here.

To be fair, Cincy writers suck even when they're 20 games out in the middle of July. I just think there's a cause-and-effect relationship Wheelhouse is claiming for the press toward a team that largely doesn't exist.

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

The word is "hector." And you're just seeing in other clubs' press what you want to see.

There you go again with the dime-store psychoanalysis of the poster... Come on, I'm imagining the tough questioning the Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Orioles, Red Sox,and other teams face when playing badly? Don't think so...

"Don't trust any statistics you did not fake yourself."--Winston Churchill

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Unassisted

If I had to guess, I'd picture the unwritten rule to be more like this: If your work endlessly questions the manager's decisions and the GM's decisions, you'll be the reporter that reads about personnel decisions in news releases, rather than the one who gets hints dropped about them before they happen.

Bingo! You win the prize.

True story. A reporter I know who shall not be named has been notorious for being critical of NASCAR. A couple of years ago, he found he couldn't even get a peep from anyone official. He was just shut off. He finally got back in the good graces, but it was a lesson well learned. You have to have the tools to do your job. Of course, the Cincy press is the other extreme. They haven't really held the Reds' feet to the fire in a long time.

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Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Come on. This isn't a question of effort or guts. Seriously--I don't know what you're asking for, really, but I know that in the end this is just a ill-proportioned and overall bad team, no different from the last eight years. No amount of hectoring from the press is going to change that.

What is Boston's record? 7-6? I guess they are a bad team too. The Yankees are 6-7, the Dodgers and Rockies are 5-7, Cleveland is 5-7.

The sky is falling.

"My mission is to be the ray of hope, the guy who stands out there on that beautiful field and owns up to his mistakes and lets people know it's never completely hopeless, no matter how bad it seems at the time. I have a platform and a message, and now I go to bed at night, sober and happy, praying I can be a good messenger." -Josh Hamilton

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

The job of the reporters is to report the news. They don't have the slightest effect on how the team is operated.

I don't think any team in any sport makes their decisions because of input from the reporters covering the team.

Wayne Krivsky is not going to demote Encarnacion because John Fay confronted him with a tough question about EE's lack of production. Pressure from the reporters is not going to cause the Reds to make a move they otherwise wouldn't make.

I know people are mad and would like some changes to make them feel better. I don't think getting swept by the Pirates in a 3 game series in April means it is time to overreact and make major moves. Heck, three days ago we were all feeling pretty good about the Reds. Now some people want to start throwing players under the bus already.

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

Originally Posted by Wheelhouse

There you go again with the dime-store psychoanalysis of the poster... Come on, I'm imagining the tough questioning the Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Orioles, Red Sox,and other teams face when playing badly? Don't think so...

Give us some examples on how tougher the Eastern media is on their teams than ours are on the Reds. It shouldn't be too difficult to find since the Orioles have stunk for the past several years and the Yankees have had stretches over the past several years where they have played poorly. Of course the NY media isn't a very good comparison since there's several newspapers, radio stations and TV stations all competing against one another for stories. Just limit it to Baltimore and Philly. Let's see how their media handles tough stretches by the Orioles and Phillies.

Re: Why do the Reds' writers just roll over?

The Cincy media was downright criminal in how little information they had about what was going on with the ownership change. Your telling me with all the radio, tv stations & two newspapers in town not one single person sniffed out who was going to be the new owner (or who could have been) until the official announcement was made?

I could name off five groups right now of potential Cubs buyers. And I haven't even been following the story.

I would have been embarrassed to be a part of the Cincy media with that nonsense. But its a microcosm of how bad the market is overall. It's a stepping stone market and anyone with any talent moves on rather quickly.

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